The invention relates to power conservation generally, and more specifically, to an approach for managing power consumption in buildings.
Reducing power consumption has become an important issue for businesses because of environmental concerns and the rising costs of electricity. Corporations have made significant progress in reducing power consumption through employee education programs that encourage employees to turn off their lights and personal computers when they leave work each day. The success of this approach depends upon the diligence of employees in turning off lights, computers and other equipment when not in use. Some types of equipment take a long time to power up from a powered down state. For example, it is not uncommon for personal computers to require several minutes to xe2x80x9cboot up.xe2x80x9d Other types of equipment, such as copy machines and laboratory instruments, can require even more time to complete a power up cycle. These delays can have an adverse effect on productivity in situations where large numbers of employees are waiting for equipment to power up. As a result of these long delays, many employees leave equipment on all the time.
Another approach has been to configure certain types of equipment, such as personal computers, with a power saving mode of operation. A power saving mode is an operating mode in which a device consumes less power, typically by shutting down one or more subsystems. For example, personal computers typically shut down the hard disk and monitor in a power saving mode. A personal computer typically enters a power saving mode after a specified amount of time has passed without any keyboard or mouse activity. When keyboard or mouse activity resumes, power is restored to all components and the personal computer returns to the regular power state. One drawback of this approach is that the PC still consumes power in the power saving mode, albeit at a reduced rate. Furthermore, the transition from power saving mode to regular operating mode can require several seconds or more, depending upon the particular implementation. Another drawback of this approach is that many older computers and other types of equipment are not configured with power saving modes of operation.
Based on the need to conserve power in buildings and the limitations in prior approaches, an approach for managing power consumption in buildings that does not suffer from the limitations of prior approaches is highly desirable.
According to one aspect of the invention, an approach is provided for managing power consumption in a building. According to the approach, a signal is received that indicates that a user has entered or left the building. The signal may be generated, for example, by an ID card reader located at an entrance to the building. In response to receiving the signal, one or more resources in the building are transitioned between a first state and a second state. When operating in the first state, the one or more resources consume relatively less power relative to when the one or more resources are operating in the second state. The approach is applicable to all types of resources, including private resources, such as personal computers, that are used primarily by the user, and shared resources, such as hallway lights and copy machines, that are used by the user and other users. Example resources include, without limitation, computers, laboratory equipment and instruments, copy machines, facsimile machines, printers, postage machines, lights and heating and air conditioning systems.
According to another aspect of the invention, a determination is made, based upon the signal and status data, whether the user has entered the building or left the building. If the user has entered the building, then the one or more resources are transitioned from the first state to the second state. If the user has left the building, then the one or more resources are transitioned from the second state to the first state.
According to a further aspect of the invention, a determination is made, based upon the signal and status data, whether the user was either the first user to enter the building or the last user to leave the building. If the user was the first user to enter the building, then one or more shared resources are transitioned from the first state to the second state. If the user was the last user to leave the building, then the one or more shared resources are transitioned from the second state to the first state.